WAKEFIELD, MA, August 22, 2007 – The Board of Directors of NUCRYST Pharmaceuticals Corp. (NASDAQ:NCST; TSX: NCS) today announced the appointment of Thomas E. Gardner as Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company effective immediately. Mr. Gardner replaces Barry M. Heck as Chairman and Scott H. Gillis as President and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Gillis is resigning his management and Board positions following eight years of leading NUCRYST to pursue new opportunities. Mr. Heck will remain as a director.

“A key role that was assigned to me as Executive Chairman was to work with the Board to assess the assets and needs of the Company,” said Mr. Heck. “We determined that Tom Gardner’s experience in managing emerging healthcare technology companies would benefit NUCRYST in the development and commercialization of our pipeline of medical products. Tom is an experienced CEO with a track record of creating shareholder value. We are excited about the prospect of his bringing that kind of success to NUCRYST. Scott Gillis has done an excellent job leading the company’s development over the past eight years and he played a pivotal role in establishing our collaboration agreement with Smith & Nephew, which resulted in the global sale and distribution of Acticoat™ antimicrobial dressings with NUCRYST’s SILCRYST™ nanocrystals. We thank him for his many contributions to NUCRYST’s growth and we look forward to his continued support as we complete this management transition.”

“I look forward to building on the Company’s successes to date and the opportunity to generate significant shareholder value,” said Mr. Gardner. “Among our top priorities is leveraging our nanocrystalline silver platform technology, which is the basis for our commercial agreement with Smith & Nephew and their Acticoat™ brand of wound dressings.”

A director of NUCRYST since May 2007, Mr. Gardner specializes in the strategic positioning of companies with particular emphasis on pharmaceuticals, medical devices and healthcare information. Prior to his current assignments, Mr. Gardner was CEO of a number of public and private companies including: Songbird Hearing, Datamonitor, Base Ten Systems, and Access Health. From 1970 to 1995, Mr. Gardner held senior marketing and general management positions at Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Simon & Schuster and IMS Health. He currently holds board seats at several privately held companies, including IntegriChain, VisiLED and Virium Pharmaceuticals.

NUCRYST Pharmaceuticals develops, manufactures and commercializes medical products that fight infection and inflammation using its patented atomically disordered nanocrystalline silver technology. Smith & Nephew plc sell a range of advanced wound care products under their Acticoat™ trade mark: Acticoat™ products incorporate NUCRYST’s SILCRYST™ coatings and are sold in over 30 countries. NUCRYST is also developing new medical products to address conditions that are characterized by infection and inflammation.

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For more information, contact:
David Wills, Investor Relations
416-504-8464info@nucryst.com

Acticoat™ is a trademark of Smith & Nephew plc
SILCRYST™ is a trademark of NUCRYST Pharmaceuticals Corp.

This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of securities legislation in the United States and Canada (collectively “forward-looking statements”). The words “would”, “will”, “prospect”, “determine”, “should”, “might”, “expects” and “plans” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, but are not limited to, statements about: our strategy, future operations, prospects, plans of management and our ability to successfully expand the company’s business and product pipeline and develop future products containing our nanocrystalline silver technology. With respect to the forward-looking statements contained in this news release, readers are cautioned that numerous risks, uncertainties and other factors could cause our actual results to differ materially from those indicated in these statements including, but not limited to: difficulties or delays in the initiation, timing, progress and results of our preclinical trials and research and development programs relating to the development of products containing our nanocrystalline silver for treatment of gastroenterology indications; our ability to maintain our collaboration with Smith & Nephew; our reliance on sales of Acticoat™ products with our SILCRYST™ coatings by Smith & Nephew; future sales of Acticoat™ may not be sufficient to adequately fund our research and development plans; our future operation results are uncertain and likely to fluctuate; we may not be able to retain existing and obtain new regulatory approvals for our NPI 32101 barrier cream and any future products; we may not be able to establish successful commercialization programs, through new corporate collaborations or otherwise, for our NPI 32101 barrier cream or for other future products; competition from other silver-based pharmaceutical or medical device companies; our ability to raise additional financing required to fund further research and development, clinical studies and obtain regulatory approvals, on commercially acceptable terms or at all; changes in currency exchange rates; our ability to protect our intellectual property rights and to not infringe on the intellectual property rights of others; our ability to comply with governmental regulations and standards; our ability to successfully attract and retain skilled and experienced personnel; changes in general economic and capital market conditions; other risks and uncertainties unidentified at this time; management’s response to these factors; and other factors described under “Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2006, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on EDGAR at www.sec.gov and with securities authorities in Canada on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement and NUCRYST disclaims any intention or obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise after the date hereof.